Mass Release of Illegal Aliens in San Diego as Governor Newsom Hobnobs at White House

California Governor Gavin Newsom is in Washington, D.C. for the annual Governor’s Conference. Yesterday he and other governors were at the White House meeting with President Biden. 

As Newsom was schmoozing with DHS Secretary Mayorkas, hundreds of illegal aliens were being released in San Diego. Border Patrol dropped them off at a San Diego bus stop instead of at a local reception center that serves as a staging center. The local center ran out of money sooner than expected. 

The shortage in funding for the reception center happened because this area of California is experiencing a flood of illegal immigrants, thanks to the open southern border. Illegal border crossers are shifting from the Texas border at Eagle Pass to areas in California and Arizona. Even a large city on the southern border like San Diego struggles to cope with the number of illegals showing up. 

The center was used to give the illegal aliens a place to charge phones, use the restroom, eat a meal, and make arrangements to travel elsewhere in the United States. Instead, they were left on the street. NGOs tried to help them as best as they could. California is a sanctuary state. San Diego is not officially designated as a sanctuary city.

The majority of illegals planned to only spend a few hours in San Diego. They were waiting for flights elsewhere or for someone to pick them up. NGOs are using federal funds through government contracts to move illegal aliens around our country. Some NGOs help them come to the United States and cross the border. 

The illegal aliens are from Senegal, China, Ecuador, Rwanda, and other countries. An unusually large amount of illegal Chinese border crossers have shown up recently. Those being released are told to show up for a hearing in various parts of the country.

“Are we in San Diego?” asked Gabriel Guzman, 30, a painter from the Dominican Republic who was released after crossing the border in remote mountains on Thursday. He was told to appear in June in an immigration court in Boston, where he hopes to earn money to send home to his three children.

Abd Boudeah, of Mauritania, flew to Tijuana, Mexico, through Nicaragua and followed other migrants to an opening in the border wall, where he surrendered to agents Thursday after walking about eight hours. The former molecular engineering student said he fled persecution for being gay and planned to settle in Chicago with a cousin who had been in the U.S. for 20 years.

“Tired from the road,” Alikan Rdiyer, 31, of Kazakhstan, said in Russian as he waited for instructions to give to a friend from Los Angeles who was going to pick him up. The Border Patrol gave him a notice to appear in immigration court in August 2025 in Philadelphia — a city he hadn’t heard of.

More Chinese nationals amongst the latest busload of migrants that was just released to the street in San Diego moments ago. We’ve seen dozens of Chinese released here today. More than 21,000 Chinese have been apprehended by Border Patrol in just San Diego sector since Oct. 1st: pic.twitter.com/ifAgxs4TtY

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 23, 2024

NEW: We were live on the air as the first of many Border Patrol buses began arriving and mass releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants to San Diego’s streets. We spoke to many of them live – they are from all around the world and they are planning to go to blue cities in U.S. pic.twitter.com/7AZlNL0TFP

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 23, 2024

San Diego County has given $6M to SBCS since October. It is a nonprofit formerly known as South Bay Community Services. The group hoped to keep the welcome center open through March but had to shut down Thursday.

Aid groups have given critical support to new arrivals, eliciting criticism from some quarters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened this week to sue and shut down Annunciation House, a decades-old organization that shelters migrants in El Paso. Paxton said the group might be “facilitating illegal entry to the United States.”

Ruben Garcia, Annunciation House’s director, gathered supporters at a news conference Friday to denounce Paxton’s tactics. “It is a full warning to other entities that also do the work of hospitality that they can very well be next,” he said.

There is a question that has to be answered – are the NGOs going too far in helping illegals come across the border? Are they doing the work of human traffickers? 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a statement Friday doing the bidding of the Biden administration by blaming Congress for the street releases. It said the releases in San Diego were “the latest example of the pressing need for Congress to provide additional resources and take legislative action to fix our outdated immigration laws.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that it would continue to “ surge personnel, transportation, processing, and humanitarian resources to the most active and arduous areas throughout San Diego’s border region where migrants are callously placed by smuggling organizations.”

While Governor Newsom was hobnobbing at the White House, his office released a statement about the situation in San Diego. It blames Republicans. Shocker, I know.

NEW: @FoxNews reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office regarding the mass street releases of hundreds of illegal immigrants we witnessed in San Diego today.
Their response blamed Republicans, and said that CA is a “model of partnership for a safe and humane border.” pic.twitter.com/9GXsILZX19

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 23, 2024

You can’t make this stuff up. The only ‘safe and humane border’ is a secure one.